Popular searches
Tamil Nadu · Government Exams
TNPSC Group 1 is the senior recruitment in Tamil Nadu: Deputy Collector, District Registrar, Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies and the other state-cadre posts that run a district between them. It is built like the civil services examination — a screening prelims, a descriptive mains, an interview — and it is decided on 850 marks, of which 100 come from a board that sets no minimum.
The 2026 cycle was live when this page was checked. Notification No. 05/2026 closed on 29 July 2026 for 46 posts, and its preliminary examination — postponed once by addendum — is on 27 September 2026. Two things distinguish the Tamil Nadu version from its neighbours: a Tamil eligibility paper in the mains that must be passed before the general studies papers are evaluated, and a marking rule that penalises a blank answer rather than a wrong one.
TNPSC Group 1 · checked 19 September 2026
The dates, vacancies and rules below are read on the conducting body’s own site and rewritten as each notice appears. The guide beneath carries the full pattern, syllabus, cut-offs and free mock tests.
Checked 19 September 2026
Notification 05/2026 — 46 posts; applications closed 29 July; prelims 27 September 2026 at 38 district centres, hall tickets on the OTR dashboard…
Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission
A bachelor’s degree; preferences by post, and a law degree raises the age ceiling for the commercial taxes post
Objective prelims at 1:20 → Tamil paper plus three descriptive general studies papers → 100-mark interview
Notification
Checked 19 September 2026. Press Release No. 111/2026 of 17 September 2026 announces that the hall tickets for the preliminary examination of 27 September, forenoon, at 38 district centres are hosted on tnpsc.gov.in and tnpscexams.in, to be downloaded through the candidate’s One Time Registration dashboard with the application number and date of birth. The current Group 1 cycle, Notification No. 05/2026 of 23 June 2026, took applications from 30 June to 29 July 2026 with a correction window in early August. Addendum 5A of 16 July postponed the preliminary examination from 6 September to 27 September 2026, 9.30 to 12.30, without stating a reason; everything else in the notification stands. The main examination date will be announced with the prelims result.
| Post | Vacancies | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Deputy Collector | 12 | Includes backlog vacancies |
| Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes | 10 | Revised from 2; preference to B.Com with B.L. and a diploma in taxation law |
| District Registrar | 8 | — |
| Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies | 6 | Revised from 3; includes shortfall vacancies |
| Assistant Director of Rural Development | 6 | Added by addendum; preference to postgraduates in rural services, extension or sociology |
| District Employment Officer | 3 | Added by addendum; preference to graduates in economics, education, sociology, statistics or psychology |
| Assistant Commissioner of Labour | 1 | Preference to freedom fighters and their families |
| Total | 46 | Tentative until the prelims result is published |
| Stage | When |
|---|---|
| Notification | 1 April 2025 |
| Preliminary examination | 15 June 2025 |
| Main examination | 1 to 4 December 2025 |
| Certificate verification and interview list | 30 March 2026 |
| Rank list | 21 April 2026 |
| Counselling and final publication list | 5 June and 16 July 2026 |
Overview
Group 1 fills the posts the state recruits directly into its senior executive cadre. The 2026 notification began with 26 vacancies across five posts and an addendum in August raised it to 46 by adding eight commercial taxes posts, three cooperative registrars, six Assistant Directors of Rural Development and three District Employment Officers. Every post is at pay level 22, and every post takes a degree, with preferences rather than requirements for particular subjects.
The examination has three properties worth understanding before committing to it. The prelims is a screen with a wide mouth — twenty candidates per vacancy proceed — and its marks then vanish. The mains is written by hand over four three-hour papers, and the first of them, in Tamil at tenth-standard level, must be passed before the other three are marked. And the interview, at 100 of the 850 marks, carries no minimum and is called at two or three candidates per vacancy, which makes it the stage that decides between candidates the mains has already ranked close together.
The preliminary examination decides who writes the mains and nothing else — its marks are not counted for the merit list. Candidates routinely over-invest in objective practice and arrive at the mains having never written a timed answer. Prepare for the mains from the first month, and treat the prelims as a filter you must pass rather than a paper you must top.
Eligibility
| Requirement | What the notification sets |
|---|---|
| Qualification | A degree of a university incorporated by a Central or State Act, or a deemed university. Final-year candidates may sit the prelims but must prove a pass before the mains. Post-specific preferences apply but are not requirements. |
| Minimum age | 21 years for every post. |
| Maximum age — general | 34 years; 35 for the commercial taxes post with a law degree. |
| Maximum age — SC, SC(A), ST, MBC, DC, BC and BC(M) | 39 years; 40 for the commercial taxes post with a law degree. |
| Concessions | Persons with benchmark disability to 44 or 45 for general candidates and 49 or 50 for reserved communities; ex-servicemen to 50 and 55; destitute widows to 39 or 40. |
| Government service | Candidates outside the reserved communities with five or more years of state government service are not eligible. |
| Tamil | Adequate knowledge — Tamil as a language in SSLC, HSC or degree, Tamil-medium schooling, or the commission’s Second Class Language Test. Otherwise it must be passed within two years of appointment. |
| Tamil-medium preference | A candidate who studied entirely in Tamil medium from first standard to degree may claim the preference under the 2010 Act as amended in 2026; the notification defines the status and the certificates. |
| Charge | Amount | Exemptions |
|---|---|---|
| One-time registration | ₹150 | None |
| Preliminary examination | ₹100 | SC, SC(A), ST, disabled and destitute-widow candidates fully; BC, BC(M), MBC and DC candidates three free chances; ex-servicemen two free chances |
| Main examination | ₹200, if shortlisted | As above; each concession used consumes a free chance |
Selection process
Each stage in order, and what it actually tests.
| Stage | Format | What it involves |
|---|---|---|
| Preliminary examination | Objective, OMR — screening only | One paper of 200 questions and 300 marks in three hours: 175 on general studies at degree standard and 25 on aptitude and mental ability at SSLC standard, set in Tamil and English. Minimum 120 for general candidates and 90 for reserved communities. Twenty candidates per vacancy proceed; the marks are then discarded. |
| Onscreen certificate verification | Documents, before the mains | Candidates shortlisted from the prelims upload their certificates for verification, and final-year candidates must prove they have passed the qualifying degree before the mains. |
| Main examination | Descriptive, four papers of three hours | Paper I, the Tamil eligibility test at SSLC standard, is qualifying at 40 marks out of 100 for every community and gates the rest. Papers II, III and IV are general studies at degree standard, 250 marks each, in Tamil or English. Minimum 300 across the three for general candidates, 225 for reserved communities. |
| Interview | Personality test, 100 marks, no minimum | Called at two per vacancy where a reservation group has five or more posts and three where it has four or fewer. Assesses personality, bearing, aptitude and general and technical knowledge. A medical board follows. |
| Rank list and counselling | Mains Papers II to IV plus interview | The rank list is built on the 850 marks. Ties go to the older candidate, then to higher mains marks, then to the earlier application. Posts are allotted by counselling under the communal roster, with 30 per cent of vacancies for women. |
Exam pattern
| Stage or paper | Content | Format | Duration | Marks | Minimum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preliminary | General studies 175 questions; aptitude and mental ability 25 | Objective, OMR, Tamil and English | 3 hours | 300, not counted | 120 general; 90 reserved |
| Mains — Paper I | Tamil eligibility test at SSLC standard | Descriptive, in Tamil | 3 hours | 100, not counted | 40 for every community |
| Mains — Paper II | General Studies I | Descriptive, Tamil or English | 3 hours | 250 | 300 across Papers II to IV for general candidates; 225 for reserved |
| Mains — Paper III | General Studies II | Descriptive | 3 hours | 250 | |
| Mains — Paper IV | General Studies III | Descriptive | 3 hours | 250 | |
| Interview | Personality test | Oral | — | 100 | None |
Papers II, III and IV are evaluated only for candidates who score 40 in Paper I; a differently-abled candidate who studied only in English may claim exemption. The interview carries 100 marks and, in the notification’s words, no minimum qualifying marks — a candidate cannot fail it, but with the mains ranking candidates within a few marks of each other, it is where the order is settled.
TNPSC revises paper structure, marks, syllabus detail and eligibility between recruitment cycles, and has done so more than once in recent years — the Tamil eligibility component itself is a recent addition. Everything here describes the shape the recruitment has held; the notification for the cycle you are sitting is the document that decides it. Read it end to end before you plan around any figure.
Study plan
Sources
Checked 11 September 2026. Vacancies, eligibility, fees, the scheme of examination, the Tamil paper rule, the interview provision and the blank-answer deduction are quoted from Notification No. 05/2026 and its two addenda; the 2025 timetable from the commission’s examination dashboard. The commission’s generic scheme page shows older minimum marks for the mains and should not be relied on against the notification. Unlike most state commissions, TNPSC publishes its descriptive papers: the Group 1 mains papers for 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 are on its site, and the prelims papers with final keys from 2013 to 2025.
Notification No. 05/2026 with scheme and syllabus Addendum 5A — prelims date Addendum 5B — vacancies and posts Preliminary syllabus Mains syllabus Notification No. 04/2025 — the previous cycle Instructions to applicants, June 2026 Descriptive question papers — mains Objective papers with final keys — prelims TNPSC annual planner
Exam resources
Six resource pages, each kept in step with the latest official notification.
Questions
27 September 2026, from 9.30 to 12.30, at 38 district centres, under Addendum 5A of 16 July 2026 to Notification No. 05/2026 — postponed from 6 September. The hall tickets have been on the OTR dashboard since 17 September 2026 (Press Release 111/2026). Applications closed on 29 July 2026. The main examination date will be announced with the prelims result.
46 after Addendum 5B of 13 August 2026: Deputy Collector 12, Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes 10, District Registrar 8, Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies 6, Assistant Director of Rural Development 6, District Employment Officer 3 and Assistant Commissioner of Labour 1. The notification calls the figures tentative until the prelims result.
A preliminary examination of 200 objective questions for 300 marks in three hours — 175 on general studies and 25 on aptitude — which screens at twenty candidates per vacancy and is then discarded. A main examination of four descriptive papers: Paper I, the Tamil eligibility test, of 100 marks and qualifying at 40; and General Studies I, II and III of 250 marks each. Then an interview of 100 marks with no minimum. The rank is built on the 850 marks of the three general studies papers and the interview.
Not for a wrong answer. But half a mark is deducted for every question left entirely blank — the notification requires a candidate who does not know the answer to darken option E — and two marks for a wrong register number on a non-personalised sheet. It is the opposite of the usual rule: the penalty is for not answering.
Yes — 100 marks, called at two candidates per vacancy where a reservation group has five or more posts and three where it has fewer, with no minimum qualifying mark. It assesses personality, bearing, aptitude and general and technical knowledge, and its marks are added to the 750 mains marks for the rank list.
Paper I of the mains — a descriptive Tamil paper at SSLC standard, three hours, 100 marks, in Tamil, qualifying at 40 for every community. Papers II, III and IV are evaluated only for candidates who pass it. A differently-abled candidate who studied only in English may claim exemption.
A minimum of 21 for every post. Maximum 34 for general candidates and 39 for SC, SC(A), ST, MBC, DC, BC and BC(M) candidates, reckoned as on 1 July 2026 — one year more for the commercial taxes post with a law degree. Persons with benchmark disability, ex-servicemen and destitute widows have higher ceilings. Candidates outside the reserved communities with five years of state service are not eligible.
A one-time registration of ₹150 valid five years, a preliminary examination fee of ₹100 and a main examination fee of ₹200 if shortlisted. SC, SC(A), ST, disabled and destitute-widow candidates are fully exempt from examination fees; BC, BC(M), MBC and DC candidates have three free chances and ex-servicemen two.
Yes, including the descriptive ones. The mains papers for the 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 cycles are on the commission’s descriptive-papers page, and the prelims papers with final keys from 2013 to 2025 are on its answer-keys page.
The 2025 cycle ran fifteen months: notification in April 2025, prelims in June, mains in December, rank list in April 2026 and final publication list in July 2026. The 2026 cycle was notified in June with prelims in September.
Read the syllabus, attempt a free mock, then fix the section that costs you the most marks.
Already practising? Create Free Account to track your preparation.
